The new All That Remains album…
By Eric | September 6, 2008 8:36 pm
The new All That Remains album “Overcome” is freakin sweet!
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Tags: music
All I Wanted Was A Pepsi…
By Eric | September 1, 2008 7:57 am
“I’M NOT CRAZY, YOU’RE THE ONE WHO’S CRAZY!!”
I just flipped on VH1 Classic in time to catch the video for Suicidal Tendencies’ “Institutionalized”, which was awesome. I still remember seeing Beavis and Butthead dissect this video, and them pretty much loving it!
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Tags: cat, family, house, music, NT, video
Just listened to the new Metallica song, The Day T
By Eric | August 21, 2008 12:00 am
Just listened to the new Metallica song, The Day That Never Comes. It sounds like a demo, and while there’s guitar solos, it’s still “meh”.
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Tags: music, twitter
Now that the Mayhem (Fest) is over, it’s back to w
By Eric | August 20, 2008 12:00 am
Now that the Mayhem (Fest) is over, it’s back to work. But what a Mayhem Fest it was! Stemm, 36CF, 5FDB, Disturbed, and Slipknot kicked ass!
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08/19/2008 Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival: Slipknot, Disturbed, Dragonforce, Mastodon, Machine Head, Underoath, Five Finger Death Punch, 36 Crazyfists, Walls Of Jericho, The Red Chord, Airbourne, Black Tide, Stemm, Suicide Silence (Darien, NY @ Darien Lake Performing Arts Center)
By Eric | August 19, 2008 11:59 pm
A hell of a lineup on a hell of a day! Adam and I arrived around noon, separately, within about 2 minutes of each other. We set up our little tailgate, this time with a small camping grill, which almost proved to be a challenge! After getting that settled, we settled in with some beverages to watch the parking lot proceedings for awhile. We made our way in the front gate around 2, and once in, pretty much made a big U-turn to get to the 2nd stage areas. They set up the two stages side-by-side, which was awesome because due to the one on, one off nature of the two stages, the music was constant all afternoon. While one band was playing, the other stage was tearing down / setting up, and as soon as the band would finish, the next one would start. Great logistical planning. One thing that did kinda suck was the fact that the surface in front of both stages was a bunch of rocks. Somewhat flat rocks, but rocks nonetheless, and boy that musta sucked for anyone in the pit that fell down. Thankfully no one was throwing them either! There were merch tents for all of the side-stage bands surrounding the 2nd stage area, a big Rockstar Energy Drink trailer in the back middle, a giant Jager dome off to the left, and the LINKMetal Mulisha were doing Motocross tricks off of a large ramp on the right side. So no shortage of entertainment!
But enough about the setup, onto the bands! Adam and I set ourselves up in front of the left-hand Jager stage, because Stemm would be playing there first and we wanted a good spot for them. However, the first band of the day was Suicide Silence, on the right hand Hot Topic stage, so we watched/heard them from afar. They were decent, but grindcore isn’t my kind of metal. So after their half-hour, Stemm was up in front of us, in front of their hometown crowd. They came out guns blazing, obviously being excited to be the Jager band for this stop. They ran through three new songs off of their forthcoming album, playing Blood Soaked, Casualty For Prayer, House Of Cards, and ending with just about the whole crowd singing along to Monster. Wish they would have played longer, but they were great! The place had really filled in, so a lot of people saw them too.
[flickr-gallery pagination=”0″ mode=”tag” tags=”2008-08-19″ tag_mode=”all”]
Recognize anyone in the 2nd pic?
Casualty For Prayer
Monster Part 1
Monster Part 2
So we had a little bit of time until some more bands we were set on seeing, so we meandered around, checked out the grounds, got a beer, and watched a couple of bands from afar, mainly Black Tide (whom we hardly watched at all) and Airbourne (not sure why they were on this tour, they’re more of a rock band in the AC/DC mold, and while pretty good and fun, a little out of place). We positioned ourselves on the fringe of the right-hand stage during The Red Chord’s set, and they were entertaining to watch. They’re also considered grindcore I guess, but I liked them better than Suicide Silence. The singer was having fun with the crowd, setting up a dual-stage “Wall Of Death” (and the crowd pulled it off!) and for their last song they had Candace from Walls of Jericho come up and sing with them. Walls of Jericho themselves were up on the left-hand stage right after, so we watched them from the right-hand stage as we waited for 36 Crazyfists to come out. WOJ were pretty good too, and there seemed to be quite a few people there to see them.
But we were there for 36 Crazyfists, and they didn’t disappoint whatsoever. In fact, they were even better live than I thought they were going to be. There were a lot of kids here to see them as well, which helped. They opened with I’ll Go Until My Heart Stops, and then into The End Of August and The Heart And The Shape, which got everyone pretty whipped up. The pit got even crazier during We Gave It Hell and Bloodwork. Brock kept thanking the crowd, which continued to be all about the set during Felt Through a Phone Line, at which point I wussed out and got out of the front. I actually got a cramp! Freakin unbelieveable! Soooo not metal. Anyway, we stood on the sidelines for Elysium, Installing the Catheter, and the closer was The All Night Lights. I cannot wait to see these guys again with a longer set (and less wussiness from me)!
I’ll Go Until My Heart Stops
Elysium
As great as that set was, the next one was even better. Arguably the highlight of either of the 2nd stages, Five Finger Death Punch had just about everyone packed into the left-hand stage area to see them, and they left everyone drained after their half-hour set. They opened with Ashes, and the place went nuts. The crazy-go-nuts didn’t stop during Salvation, nor The Way Of The Fist. It only stopped during the middle of White Knuckles, and that was because the band all but stopped the song to prime everyone for the breakdown in the middle. Lead singer Ivan Moody led the chant “I’m taking back control…” to which the entire crowd responded “…WITH MY KNUCKLES”, at which point the pit pretty much exploded. Talk about fun, being in the middle of that was pretty cool! Obviously, the closer was The Bleeding, and the crowd participation on that one was just as good (see the video below). I actually got knocked down during this song, but much like the whole day, everyone in the pit was awesome, they stopped and picked people back up, no one that I saw got hurt too badly, no one got trampled, and everyone had a great time. I definately need to see these guys on their own show as well, as live, they impressed the hell out of me.
Salvation
The Bleeding
More meandering at this point, Adam and I got our wristbands for the pit, but we didn’t watch any of Mastodon, and hardly any of Dragonforce on the mainstage, and while we were doing that, we missed Underoath on the side stage, but caught most of Machine Head’s set before going back to the main stage for the two big bands. MH setlist: Clenching the Fists of Dissent, Imperium, Old, Halo, Davidian.
Much like other Darien shows, the pit was the first 10 rows of seats taken out, surrounded by a barrier. We made our way in during Disturbed’s first song, Perfect Insanity, and after chilling in the back and noticing not a damn person moving around at all, at the start of Liberate we follwed some other people and pretty much bum-rushed our way into the middle center where people were jumping, somewhat moshing, and generally acutally enjoying the show. Disturbed sounded fantastic, and considering I haven’t seen them since July of 2001, they’ve come a long way. They were just flat out great. They mostly played their “hits”, but that didn’t really matter. Just Stop, Voices, Indestructible, and Prayer were next, with the crowd around us singing along to everything. Stupify, Criminal, 10000 Fists, and The Game followed, and then a few words from David Draiman about how Inside The Fire set a record for longest time at #1 on the Active Rock chart (15 weeks I think), before playing that, and closing out the set with Stricken and Down With The Sickness. Again, they sounded great, the stage setup was minimalist, but cool, and once we got around people that were actually moving, the crowd was great too.
Just Stop
Indestructible
Inside The Fire
Now it was headliner time… Slipknot. This being the third time I’d seen them, and first on the floor/pit. It didn’t really matter, and I’ll tell you why. The crowd in the front pit area, for the most part, was L-A-M-E. Now I will admit, I was tired by this point too, but holy shit people, it’s Slipknot for crissakes! They opened with an intro clip from Danger, Keep Away, and then the first song was the old closer, Surfacing, which should have whipped everyone into a frenzy from the get-go. Adam and I started jumping around, and save for like two other people, no one else did, at least not down front and center by us. A lot of standing around and fist pumping, and not much else. The band sounded great, and the setlist was pretty decent also. After Surfacing, we got The Blister Exists (with the the cool drum part in the middle), a nod to the old fans with Get This, then continuing on with Before I Forget, Disasterpiece, and the new Psychosocial. They brought it back to the older stuff with The Heretic Anthem, and really old school with Prosthetics (which was neat to hear live). They closed it down with People=Shit and (sic). Like I said, the band sounded good, the stage setup was neat as always (the hydraulic drum kits were in full force, and Clown’s rig had a video screen and a couple cameras attached to it, and the pyro was cool), but the crowd was awful. There was one pit off to the rear-right of us, but other than that, it was people standing around. I never thought I’d be able to stand in one spot in a Slipknot pit and not get touched. I hope people were going crazy on the lawn and in the seats, because people in the pit certainly were not. It almost dampened my enthusiasm for the set a little.
Surfacing / The Blister Exists / Get This
Overall, the day was a great success, the bands were great, the crowd for the most part was great (until the end), and the whole setup was great. Getting out of the parking lot, not so great. We sat for 45 minutes with nary a car moving at all. Nowhere. Then it’s like something released, and we got out in a pretty decent fashion. Weird. Anyway, good times, good tunes, and good memories.
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 08/19/2008 Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival: Slipknot, Disturbed, Dragonforce, Mastodon, Machine Head, Underoath, Five Finger Death Punch, 36 Crazyfists, Walls Of Jericho, The Red Chord, Airbourne, Black Tide, Stemm, Suicide Silence (Darien, NY @ Darien Lake Performing Arts Center)
Tags: 2008, 36 Crazyfists, Airbourne, Black Tide, Darien, Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, Disturbed, Dragonforce, Five Finger Death Punch, Machine Head, Mastodon, Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival, Slipknot, Stemm, Suicide Silence, The Red Chord, Underoath, Walls Of Jericho
Yay thunder and lightning… Mayhem Fest tomorrow
By Eric | August 19, 2008 12:00 am
Yay thunder and lightning… Mayhem Fest tomorrow is gonna be a mud pit… can’t wait!
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The new Black Stone Cherry album just leaked… me
By Eric | August 15, 2008 12:00 am
The new Black Stone Cherry album just leaked… me likey! So did the new Staind album… that one, not so much.
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08/05/2008 Nine Inch Nails, Deerhunter (Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre)
By Eric | August 5, 2008 11:59 pm
Sara and I rolled up the QEW to visit our friends to the north, making a day trip out of it. We got to the downtown area around noon, walked up and down Queen St., hit the Eaton Centre for lunch, and then got to the ACC around 3ish. I waited in line at the box office to get my pre-sale ticket, but got in the regular line as neither Sara nor her friends had pre-sale tickets. It was just as well, because her friends were close to the start of the line, and also, it started pouring, and the pre-sale line had no shelter, while we were along the side of the building that had a canopy. So we were nice and dry, while the “special” line got soaked. Once inside, we pretty much ended up in the same spot anyway!
So we figured the crowd would be rowdy, as most Toronto GA shows tend to be, so Sara and I went to the far right of the floor, about 10-15 people back. We hung along a temporary barrier that was set up to separate the seats from the GA floor. (As it turned out, the crowd was such that we could have stayed in the thick of it without getting killed. Oh well. More on that later.) Deerhunter was up first, and God were they boring. Not bad, not terrible, just out and out boring as hell. Their Myspace page lists them as Ambient / Garage / Punk. May as well have listed them as white noise, because they put me to sleep. The 40 or so minutes couldn’t go fast enough. It’d be easier if they were awful, because you could actively make fun of them, but they were musically competent, just not exciting at all.
Anyway, on to the good part. Nails! After a respite, the opening strains of “999,999” could be heard, the band appeared, the stage lit up, and they slammed into “1,000,000”. Continuing the tracklist from The Slip, “Letting You” and “Discipline” were next. I was pretty much standing in awe of the whole spectacle. The stage setup was incredible. The light show was amazing, even better than Fragility (and that’s saying a lot). They got everyone whipped up with “March Of The Pigs”, then “Head Down”. Then it got a little confusing, as they played “The Frail”, but as opposed to the usual continuation into The Wretched, we got “Closer” instead. WEEEE-IRD. Back to the heavy stuff with “Gave Up”, then a taste of Year Zero with “The Warning” and “Vessel” played with a smaller electronic-only setup at the front of the stage in front of one of the “light curtains”.
We were curious as to why they did this, until we saw what came next. The “light curtain” was pulled up to reveal an almost orchestral setup, with Josh playing timpani, the bass player playing an upright bass (and also with a bow as a cello), and Trent playing a xylophone, of all things! Why all this? To play some selections from Ghosts! For those scoring at home, we got “5 Ghosts I”, “6 Ghosts I”, and “19 Ghosts III”, and then a new stripped down version of “Piggy” (apparently listed on the setlist as Ghosts Piggy). The curtain came back down as “The Greater Good” played, and at the end, Trent and a cameraman appeared in front of the curtain, and the curtain actually had a distorted video image of Trent singing. A pretty cool effect.
The curtain came back up to “Pinion” into “Wish”, and then a crowd surge for “Terrible Lie”. The video boards in the back were used to great effect on “Survivalism”, as there was a grid of about 8 different camera angles displayed, both on the stage and throughout the arena, including one in the mens room! (Whoever the dude in the front row was, you knew you were on camera and you weren’t rocking out… what gives?). The curtain came back down, but you could see right through it, as we got our only “real” song from The Fragile, which was “The Big Come Down”, which featured the band batting around what looked like swinging fluorescent shop lights around. To clean that stage setup up, we got “31 Ghosts IV” as a sort of interlude, before Robin came to the fore for a new intro to “Only”. “The Hand That Feeds” and “Head Like A Hole” closed out the main set. The curtain came down again, in anticipation of the encore. Josh was essentially playing the video screen like a beatbox before the rest of the band appeared to start “Echoplex”. Back to Year Zero for “God Given” and “The Good Soldier”, and then what we thought would be the closer, “Hurt”. Only they had one more trick up their sleeve, leaving the stage one by one to “In This Twilight”.
Overall, it was a great show, with a more sedate crowd than we expected. That isn’t to say they weren’t into it, because they were, but it wasn’t the rough and tumble Toronto GA crowd we usually experience. The band was in top form, you could tell Trent was straining just a bit, fighting a cold, but it didn’t hamper anything. Robin is back in the band, and let me say, ROBIN IS BACK. It was awesome. A great great show, and a recording showed up not soon after, so I have the audio, and there’s a video too!
SETLIST:
999,999
1,000,000
Letting You
Discipline
March of the Pigs
Head Down
The Frail
Closer
Gave Up
Corona Radiata (partial)
The Warning
Vessel
5 Ghosts I
6 Ghosts I
19 Ghosts III
Piggy
The Greater Good
Pinion
Wish
Terrible Lie
Survivalism
The Big Come Down
31 Ghosts IV
Only
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like A Hole
ENCORE:
Echoplex
God Given
The Good Soldier
Hurt
In This Twilight
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Tags: 2008, Air Canada Centre, Deerhunter, Nine Inch Nails, Toronto
Deerhunter is so boring, i’m texting this from the
By Eric | August 5, 2008 12:00 am
Deerhunter is so boring, i’m texting this from the show!
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07/26/2008 Edgefest 2008: Godsmack, Sevendust, Alter Bridge, Tantric, Evans Blue (Darien, NY @ Darien Lake Performing Arts Center)
By Eric | July 26, 2008 11:59 pm
[Double Eagle Standard and Silvertide were on the bill as well, but we didn’t watch them.]
Adam and I literally got there within a minute of each other, and set up our little tailgate out of my trunk. Which really just consisted of a couple of subs and a couple more beers. We got there at about 1:00 and chilled till roughly 4:00, watching about 20 people attempt (and either fail or get rebuffed) to park in the seemingly empty spots across from us. Empty, save for the giant mudpit / sinkhole that they’d never get out of had they parked there. So feeling pretty good, Adam and I wandered into the venue. We had two separate tickets, one of which was the exact seat I had the night before, and the other one was about 7 rows behind it, also on the end of the row. We never actually used that seat, as we were able to stick together all day, such was the sparseness of the crowd at that point (and owing to some luck later on in the night).
103.3 billed this as Edgefest 2008, and as such there were a bunch of bands, on the bill, and stereotypically at festivals like this, the unknown bands are on early. As such, we missed Double Eagle Standard and Silvertide completely, and we walked in during the middle of Evans Blue’s set. They were pretty decent Canadian alt-rock. They sound like a cross of Chevelle and Breaking Benjamin to me, and they kept us occupied, even though neither Adam nor I knew any of the songs.
After a short set change, the first band we actually wanted to see, Tantric, came on. I actually own the first album, and have mp3’s for the other two, so I’m reasonably familiar with the songs, moreso the first album by far. They sounded pretty good, played a bunch of stuff off the latest album that just came out, and while the crowds were still thin at this point, they sufficiently had people excited for them. More energy for them than all of 3DD the night before!
Tantric Setlist: Regret, Lucky One, Hey Now, [some song I didn’t recognize], Astounded, Live Your Life (Down), The One, Down and Out, Breakdown
Next was a band I really wanted to see, and hadn’t up until this point; Alter Bridge. 3/4 of what used to be Creed, plus Miles Kennedy (formerly of the Mayfield Four). They didn’t disappoint, even despite the complete lack of a soundsystem for the first song (house’s fault, not theirs). Adam and I were able to move across our entire empty row and end up in the two aisle seats, right in the middle, 8 rows back. Perfect spot! There were more than a handful of people there to see them, and the band put forth a highly energetic set in return. Miles really can hit all of those notes live, and everyone’s problem with Creed was never Mark Tremonti’s playing, as he killed it also. They played practically everything I would have wanted to hear, so the set had that going for me personally. Right before the last song, Miles played a bluesy slide-guitar solo, with lyrics reminiscent of LZ’s “The Lemon Song”, which the crowd ate up. Great set, good times.
Alter Bridge Setlist: Come To Life, Find The Real, Brand New Start, White Knuckles, Buried Alive, Before Tomorrow Comes, Ties That Bind, Blackbird, Metalingus, Open Your Eyes, [Miles Kennedy Slide-Blues Thing], Rise Today
Now we come to the band I really came to see… The almighty Sevendust. I was a little unsure what to expect, as this was the first time I’d ever seen them in a seated venue (Water Street balcony at the acoustic show aside), and we all know what a contact sport a usual Sevendust show is like. Well, at this point, I was feeling no pain, so *I* was rocking out super-hard, and I really have no clue of what any one else was doing, especially due to the fact that I jumped across the aisle and up three or four rows into an empty seat to get a little closer. I’m pretty sure the girl next to me wondered just what the hell I was on, but… yeah, well, ya know… beer and adrenaline honey, beer and adrenaline. And before I forget to mention, CLINT’S BACK! It was pretty cool to see him banging out songs he didn’t write/play on the album, but with equal intensity. They opened with Inside, and then whipped the now-sizeable crowd into shape with Denial. Obviously an abbreviated set due to it being a festival, and them being openers, but we still got 11 songs, although curiously enough, we didn’t get “Prodigal Son”, the lead single off the new album. Oh well, whatever. I was drained by the end of their set, but it was all well and good. Adam said the rest of the place was going nuts for them as well, so that’s pretty awesome. I still love seeing these guys, and this was the 11th time!
Sevendust Setlist: Inside, Denial, Ugly, Enemy, Waffle, Clueless, Angels Son, Black, Praise, Pieces, Face To Face
So rather than go back to our real seats for Godsmack, Adam and I decided to try our luck right where we were. We ended up just to the right of the center aisle, about 10 rows back. And never got bothered. A picture perfect view of the stage, and we were now amongst a fairly full crowd, all of whom were there to see Godsmack. And they were vocal about it. A far cry from the night before. They dimmed the lights, lit up the stage, and cranked out AC/DC’s “For Those About To Rock” over the PA, then the band took to the stage and lit into Straight Out Of Line. The crowd went crazy, and pretty much stayed that way all night. I like Godsmack well enough, but this show, combined with the fan reaction made me enjoy them that much more. I hadn’t seen them since the “ride-the-tour-bus show” in ’01, right after 9/11, so it had been 7 years or so, and I came away with a renewed respect for them. It’s still not the most original of music, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t fun! They kept up the energy all night, and the crowd did too. They played all the favorites, and were in fine form, considering that they, like Staind, have been off the road for awhile. In addition, they only had four shows booked for this summer, and this was one of them. Good choice, boys. Good choice. Adam and I headed back to the lawn for the encore, so as to make a quick escape once the show was over. The quick escape was a success, just as much as the show had been. We had a great time, saw some great bands, and rocked ourselves out. m/
Godsmack Setlist: Straight Out Of Line, Greed, Enemy, Bad Religion, Moon Baby, Awake, Re-Align, [Sully’s Feedback Solo], Speak, Voodoo, Keep Away (with We Will Rock You / Walk insert), Whatever. Encore: Serenity, Good Times Bad Times, I Stand Alone
Topics: Concerts | 1 Comment »
Tags: 2008, Alter Bridge, Darien, Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, Edgefest, Evans Blue, Godsmack, Sevendust, Tantric